


You Found Me

by Aegistic



Category: Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Frenemies, Gray Jedi, Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Reylo/Greylo, SPOILERS FOR THE LAST JEDI, The Force, so many spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 21:43:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13040025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aegistic/pseuds/Aegistic
Summary: THIS WORK WILL SPOIL SEVERAL MAJOR PLOT POINT FOR EPISODE VIII YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.-The Force works in mysterious and confusing ways, but bringing people together across an entire galaxy, wasn't what Rey really had in mind.  Neither was being bonded to Kylo Ren.





	1. Chapter 1

She had shut the door on him. Literally shut it. There was no more ringing in his ears followed by emptiness and her.  No more connection.  Maybe the Supreme leader was the reason they had been able to reach each other across the galaxy.  Maybe that last time, watching her shut him out, was a fluke after Snoke's death.  Ben rubbed his eyes.  He'd been lost in thought about the Force and their bond while poring over maps of the star system.  The images in front of him on the table blurred into nebulae, too swirled to make heads or tails of.  He shoved them onto the floor with a roar and froze as the sound of them clattering to the floor stopped all at once.  He whirled around in the emptiness.  It was dim.  In the past it had been a blinding white that left the two of them open to each other.    He hesitated on calling out to her. Maybe this was another fluke.  Maybe she would shut him out just as quickly. His eyes adjusted to the low light and he saw her. She was curled on her side, back to him.  He felt his chest pound as instinct fought reason on whether or not he should rush to her and see if she was dead. He took a careful step towards her and she sighed softly and rolled over.

"Asleep..."He whispered into the nothingness.  "That explains the dimness."  The girl shifted in her sleep and Ben held his breath.  "Don't wake up..."

He lowered himself to the ground near her as quietly as he could, a wary eye on her in case she woke up and shut him out again.  Ben Solo was, in a lot of ways a simple man.  He saw his world for what he knew it to be and this girl was a curious wrench that had been thrown into it.  She fascinated him.  They had a hesitant camaraderie briefly and he was excited to share the same loneliness with someone else.  He had, for lack of a better term, missed her.  He stretched out on the floor facing her.  He watched the rise and fall of her shoulders as she slept.  It was nice.  He would, of course, deny ever having had a sympathetic thought about his enemy and in the same instant considered if he could kill her from this distance.  Knocking on his door pulled him out of his thoughts and he rolled to his feet.  She was still asleep when he gently closed the door behind him and came out of the empty space of the bond.

\---------------

They dined in shifts on the Millenium Falcon.  Rations were plenty enough and they had already stopped twice to replenish them on mostly neutral planets.  Rey liked eating with Poe the most.  He had so many stories he could tell and always managed to draw a small crowd with them. She could sit quietly in the throng of people and eat while enjoying not being the center of discussions.  Poe was in the middle of explaining the trouble he had found himself in on an outer rim planet during their farming season to the loud cheers and hoots from the gathered crowd.  Rey laughed along as her ears rang and the cacophony of voices quieted to nothing.  Her breath halted in her throat and she looked up from her meal to Ben seated next to her.  He was staring straight ahead at something only he could see on his end of the bond.  A minute crawled by as they sat in silence.  Rey trying to not be obvious that something was amiss and at the same time aching to lash out down the bond and force it shut.

"How interesting."  The voice next to her almost whispered.  He turned to her briefly before the room slowly swam back into her view.  Poe was just finishing the delivery of his punch-line to the delight of his audience.  Rey forced herself to laugh with the rest of them and stuffed her food into her mouth to keep from saying anything stupid.

\------------------------

Ben wasn't sure if it was him reaching out or her.  That first time while she was asleep had to have been her.  But the second time...He had been so bored out of his mind listening to Hux explain how leadership and command was supposed to be structured that he'd simply said to himself, " _how is she?_ " and they were together through the bond in an instant.  It was the same as it had been when it first started.  He could see her and she could see him.  She looked bewildered and bemused all at once as if she was trying to figure out how to make two conversations seem like one if she needed to. 

Now he was sitting alone in his quarters with the door locked and the lights dimmed ready for him to go to sleep.  He waited patiently, seated on his bed carefully testing the Force around him, tugging on things that felt like her, trying to will her to think of him.  He didn't miss her, not this time.  He wanted to know how the bond worked, who was controlling it.  Was it something unique to them? Had Snoke been lying or telling the truth in that red room?  He had to experiment to find out and a thought nagged at the back of his mind that Snoke wasn't acting alone.

He meditated through the sleeper cycle of Lights in his room and had barely scratched the surface of how to get the answers he wanted.  Hux pounded his fists on Ben's door and screeched something about rebels.  Ben hurled a table at the door in frustration.  He wanted to see her.

\-----------------------------

Rey could resist the tugging into the bond space, she learned.  She spent the entirety of her day fighting it but she was relieved to know that she could resist it if she could feel it.  Why she was feeling the pull was a different matter.  It seemed like a random happenstance.  Ben sitting next to her had been a fluke that time, she was sure of it.  She wondered if she was sensing Luke inside of the Force, Han and the lives of everyone and everything that she had known and cared for.  She hoped it was that simple, because the reality of her Force bond to Ben being rekindled scared her.  She kicked her boots off and crawled into the bunk space in the barracks of the abandoned base they had spent all day setting up in.  She was aching bodily and mentally, the double strain of fighting the pull and lifting objects around the base had taken a toll on her and she fell asleep hard and fast. 

Rey dreamed about being in the bowels of an enormous star destroyer.  She dreamed about disabling tracking software when no one was around and wiping the memories of Storm Troopers who got in her way.  She dreamed about striding confidently down the silver hallways and trying to keep something secret, to keep something small and precious as safe as possible.  In her dreams she passed a window with a view of a dying star.  Ben's face was reflected back at her and she woke with a jolt and rolled out of bed.

\-------------------------------

If Snoke had been the Supreme Leader, Ben Solo wanted nothing of the title.  There was nothing Supreme about what he was doing.  Yes he wanted to rise up into the empty seat of power. Had taken it for himself and literally threw Hux around until he cow-towed to him, but that didn't mean that he wanted _the_ ultimate power in the universe.  He wasn't sure if there really was such a thing.  He had been taught Jedi principles and had felt the Force flowing through all living things.  There was no way one man could claim to rise above that.  He kept his concerns to himself during meetings and asserted his authority over the First Order regardless.  Hux referred to him as Supreme Leader.  Hesitant to call him Kylo Ren or any variation thereof.  He was amused by this but knew that he had burned up all his manic tantrums when he ordered all guns fired on the vision of his Uncle that day on Crait.  He needed to ascend to his new title and keep it.  He had other concerns already. Luke was dead. The rebels were so few now that crushing them seemed almost cruel. Their allies were too scared to help and they were cornered.  Ben needed something to secure his power.  Something that had more impact on the universe than eliminating a handful of pilots. 

He drummed his fingers on the table he was seated at and glared at Hux. 

"Crush the rebels.  Once they've been wholly eliminated the other systems will fall in line."

"But Supreme Leader, we've been searching vain for them for weeks now. We've lost the signal  and never picked it back up.  We can't keep our Flagship on this course.  It's time to return to the seat of the First Order."

"Back to..." Ben laughed. "That place is full of two-faced liars."

"I was born there."  Hux Objected.  Ben raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't waste energy proving me right, General."   Ben stood up from his chair and the ringing in his ears came back.  He fought against the warmth rising in his chest and turned on his heels to exit the room. 

Rey was there.  Awake. Soaking wet.... Naked.

Their eyes met and his world came back to him with a crash.

\-----------------------------------------

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> STILL SPOILERS STILL REYLO

"I'd say we're even." Said a voice from the other side of the deserted hallway.

"We are not!" Rey hissed. "Not in the slightest and you-" She wrapped her blanket around her tighter.

"I didn't do that." Her companion replied to her unvoiced accusations.

"Well I certainly didn't!" Rey snapped. Ben laughed.

She paused, caught off guard. Since when does the man who tried to kill her, saved her, chased her to the ends of the galaxy...laugh?

She turned to face him and his bemused expression but was greeted with the empty hall.  
\--------------------------------------------

Ben had determined several things. They could both reach down the bond subconsciously and contact each other. He couldn't do it while trying to. It had to be natural and what the bond determined as natural varied. There was one clear thread between them. It hadn't been tampered with. It was something beyond his knowledge, but he felt no fear about it. Also she had been thinking about him while bathing. His cheeks felt hot and he picked up his glass from the table and drained it. 

They had returned planet-side after all. It seemed like a good distraction from his actions concerning their ability to track the rebels. General Hux was happy to be back on the solid ground of a planet again even if it meant meeting after meeting with thugs and gangsters. They were building an empire. Amassing the right sort of following that the First Order already had and expanding where they could reach.

"Can you picture me as a senator?" Ben asked the alien seated next to him. It grumbled something back in its native tongue. "Yes, you're probably right. They'd kill me on sight if I tried."

"What do you want, "Supreme Leader"? What goal, to what end do you think you need us for?" a grotesque thug asked from down the table. He had a slab of raw meat in one hand that he was gesticulating with wildly.

"Balance." Ben took another drink from his glass and stood up from the table. "The Galaxy is in disarray. It needs to be united under one entire banner. The First Order can destroy planets. Something that hasn't been possible since the time of the Empire. The strong rise and the weak fall. That's the balance. The weak are trying to climb to the top and they need us to show them their place in all this."

He glanced around the room. They were sizing him up as much as he was sizing them up. "You can follow me, gain that power you're so hungry for and fight under the banner of the First Order...or not. I have other dinners, other meetings."

Several thugs jumped to their feet and drew blasters. "You call us here, ask us for our allegiance only to tell us we're useless to you? What kind of bullshit are you pulling?"

"I never said you were useless. I said join or don't. Didn't I say that, General?"

Hux glared at Kylo Ren. His nostrils flared ever so imperceptibly. 

Ben's ears rang and he watched Rey stride past Hux out of the room. The bond faded as quickly as it came on. He used the force to pull the blasters from the hands of the thugs who had drawn them and turned them on their owners.

\--------------------------------------------------  
"You're not chasing us anymore." She reclined against the post tower of the base. She was sitting outside wrapped in a heavy winter coat against the snow and cold. She was alone save for a herd of grazing animals.

"For now." He was pacing. 

"Thank you." Rey said after a moment of silence between them.

"You're welc-" Ben bit his lips shut. Rey watched him. She had turned down his offer to rule side-by side. She declared him her enemy. Yet they couldn't seem to stop themselves from these stolen moments. This hesitant peace. 

"Where are you?" She asked. "I can see you, but only you. Can you see me?"

Ben huffed a laugh through his nose. He'd said the same to her the very first time they had been brought together from opposite sides of the galaxy by the bond.

"I'm on a planet. Somewhere in the outer rim."

"Sounds terrible."

"Where are you?" Ben hid the amusement in his voice but his eyes twinkled when they met hers.

"On a planet."

"A cold one?" He couldn't see beyond her, but snow would catch in her eyelashes from time to time and her hair would blow in the wind.

"No it's quite warm and sunny. Loads of trees." Rey rubbed her hands together to regain feeling in her fingers. 

Ben stopped pacing in front of her and knelt in front of her. He pulled his gloves off and held a hand out. "It's warm here too."

\----------------------------------------------------  
His finger tips were red from the cold. He jammed them in the pockets of his finery. General Hux had insisted on the best presentation possible for this dinner. They were going to meet with supporters of the empire who sat in the Senate. The top half of his hair was tied back and the rest hung over his ears. makeup had been applied over his scar. He felt wholly uncomfortable and wondered how he could get back to that snowy place with her.

Kylo Ren had surpassed all hopes for the senators. He was a pedigree Force user, groomed by the Supreme Leader of the First Order, and powerful. They all had plans for how to use him. He could read it on each of them so easily. They hid nothing. They didn't remember how easily the Force could be used to take private information. Ben locked his own mind up behind a wall, all his secrets and dealings were his to know. He had to keep everything close. He was playing a dangerous game by himself. He wasn't even sure if he had an ally in the girl he left sitting in the snow on a planet god knows where.

So instead, he smiled and performed for the crowds that Hux brought before him. He explained his vision for a galaxy in Balance and made promises he would break a dozen times over. He was going to rule it all, he didn't care about how.  
\----------------------------------------------------------  
Rey dreamed about being lifted up by parents who loved her. She was somewhere where she was wanted and loved. She sat in her father's lap while he took his ship out on a run to another system for a job. Her mother would comb her hair and read stories. Her reflection had black hair and moles on long cheeks and ears that were just a little too big and lips too pouty. She knew these dreams weren't hers.

She wanted them to be hers. She wanted memories of a happy childhood instead of one spent working to the point of exhaustion. Sometimes she got to have her dreams. A voice calling to her across time. An oversized and gross arm pulling her across the sand dunes while she sobbed for her family. Gaping swirling darkness looming before and behind her. Wholly encompassing her. 

The dream about the darkness happened if she'd fall asleep first, she learned. She would be wrapped in panic for the first five minutes but then slowly the thick roiling blackness would be punctured by flecks of light until a hand reached through and pulled her from it.

The first time she'd woken up instantly and had severed the bond. The second time she saw Ben peering at her from the light before she woke up. By the fifth time he was able to pull her out of the darkness.

"Are we actually asleep right now?" She asked in a whisper.

"I don't know." He replied after a moment.

"Can I lean against you?"

"...I don't know." He hadn't yet let go of her after pulling her from the darkness. She hadn't let go of his hand either.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> STILL SPOILERS. STILL REYLO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To maintain some separation between personalities, Ben is being referred to as "Supreme Leader" and "Kylo Ren" when not in the bond. He is Ben when he is by himself and in the bond.  
> \-------------------

"A new Flag ship has been built on a nearby planet that they want to give to us." Hux was explaining.

"Good." Kylo Ren took the paper that had been slid to him from across the table.

"Yes, " Hux said with the intonation that he had more to say but wasn't sure if it was going to be worth getting thrown across the room for.

"You may speak freely." Kylo Ren waved the rest of the staff out of the room. He only liked asserting his dominance in a crowded room, it was fun to let Hux think he was trustworthy from time to time.

"Well...I had hoped that your desire to crush the rebels would have petered out by now. We've made so much progress here winning voices over to our side. We could see total galactic superiority in less than five years if we stay the course." The general's eyes lit up with greed.

"Interesting. Why do you think the rebellion is not a threat to what we are trying to build, General?"

"I..."

"If we let them sit and spawn and spread their ideologies then we have that many more to face when they decide to rise up. You have to cut off the head of the snake if you want it dead. We've been chopping at the tail all these years and finally we're close enough to end it."

"Yes but you don't need to lead up the hunt. Supreme Leader, you're our LEADER. You've already changed so much for the better. You need to stay."

"Counter offer- We are getting a new Flagship. We need a planet to build on. We have no home in this Galaxy except among thieves and gangsters and the scum of the senate. Let's go plant the seed of the First Order instead of wasting ourselves on this garbage heap."

"You mean build a new Starkiller base?"

"Build a seat of power General. Yes a planet that can eat stars and destroy planets a solar system away is impressive but you can't live there. We need a foot hold."

"That is surprisingly mature of you." HUx puffed out his chest, assuming this change was because of his influence.

"Get out of here before I lose my patience with your idiocy."  
\----------------------------------------------------------------  
Rey struggled against the inkiness of the blackness that was suffocating her. She cried out but it filled her throat and she drowned in the thickness of it. It took so long for the light to reach her. It wasn't just a hand that came through. It was all of him. He wrapped her in his arms and the darkness scattered like smoke in the wind.  
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I'm late." He whispered into her hair.  
Rey sobbed against him.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------  
The Flagship was impressive. It had the most technically advanced tracking systems of any Star Destroyer in the system. Ben disabled them with the flick of the wrist, sending several small bolts out of place deep inside the mechanism. 

"General," He turned to face Hux. "What are we naming this magnificent ship?"

"The Democracy." Hux replied with a malicious grin.

"Because it brings anything but?"

"Precisely."

"Clever. Easy to remember too. Prepare her for departure by the end of the day."

"Yes Supreme Leader."

Ben peeled away from Hux and his small band of officers and headed back up to the location that had been built has his commander's quarters. It was a lavish upgrade from the stark quarter's he'd preferred under Snoke and on the planet. The bed was large and made of some carved stone. The blankets were a deep midnight blue and the floors were a polished black. It looked like a cave and simultaneously a room fitting a fairy tale prince. He wondered what Rey would think. He reached out through the ship with the Force and disabled audio and visual monitoring systems within his quarters and the hall leading to them. There weren't as many as he had expected. Maybe Hux really was beginning to trust him as a leader.

More than that, he wanted to make certain that no one could see what he had seen last night. Rey had calmed down after he pulled her from the darkness and was curled up against him. Without thinking he had kissed her forehead and both of them had woken up, but for the briefest of moments, Rey was with him, in his bed, staring at him and the sudden change in surroundings. He had blinked and she was gone and the bond had closed.  
\--------------------------------------------------------  
"You left your bunk last night." Rose said as she followed Rey down the line for breakfast. "I don't know how you did it because I never heard you and I'm a light sleeper, but you did. I woke up and you were gone." Rose slept on the bunk next to Rey's which was at the end of the line of beds in the barracks.

"I had to use the toilet."

"Okay, but your bed creaks when you get up and it always wakes me up when you come back too."

"Maybe you're getting better at sleeping."

"I doubt it. I can hear Finn snoring from the other side of the room."

"I do not snore." Finn said in contempt as he joined them in the line.

Rey laughed as her ears rang and the world fell away around her. She glanced ahead of her at a bank of steam and a pair of pale broad shoulders that rose up out of the mist. The steam dissipated and Ben turned around to stare at her, one arm braced against a wall she couldn't see the other reaching in front of his hips.

"NOT NOW!" He barked as his eyes locked with hers. She hesitated a moment giving him the quickest of glance-overs then snapped the bond shut.

Her cheeks were flushed the brightest of reds as she took a step forward in line. Finn and Rose were still arguing about whether or not he snored.  
\---------------------------------------------------


	4. Chapter 4

"So if the bond opens when we think about each other," Rey ventured. She was in her coat again and had brought goggles to keep her eyes protected from the glare of the sun on snow.

"I wasn't... " Ben tried.

"Good." Rey flushed and buried her face into her coat to hide the color that crept into her cheeks.

"We have a new flagship," Ben started. He was grasping for something to take the conversation further away from what he'd been doing in the shower while thinking about her. "It can't track you."

Rey was silent.

"I disabled it." Ben added almost as an afterthought.

"Why?"

"I don't know."  
\------------------------------------------------------------------  
Kylo Ren, the Supreme Leader of the First Order, loomed over the bridge of his Flagship. General Hux followed him closely, watching, waiting to see what his first military course of action would be. They stopped at each battle station briefly as Kylo listened to what the particular officer was doing or there to do. Finally he took his seat in the center of the bridge and pulled up a map.

"There seems to be some resistance among the senate in regards to what the First Order should and should not be doing. I want to persuade them to rethink their course of action. We're going to target our largest opposition on Coruscant. The senators there still cling to the vain hopes of a Republic that empowers everyone. They need to be shown what a truly balanced galaxy could look like."

The map swirled around to focus on a single planet in the central system. 

"Captain. Take us to Coruscant." Kylo Ren's voice carried across the entire bridge with his order. The anticipation of what he had just announced hung palpable in the air. He rose from the chair once they jumped into Hyper Space and retreated from the bridge, Hux on his heels.

"Supreme Leader, do you intend to declare war on the Republic?"

"It depends on them, General. Make sure our fighters are ready to defend The Democracy as soon as we complete our jump."

General Hux gave him a crisp salute and returned to the bridge to make the necessary preparations.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
The bond hadn't activated for several weeks. Rey only hesitantly thought about it as she spun her staff behind her back and dropped into a defensive stance. She worked herself hard, practicing what she had taught herself on Jakku, had been refined on Ach-To, and improved upon by being around other fighters. Finn swing his own quarterstaff down over her which she blocked easily and rolled away from.

"Why've you been sleeping on the Falcon?" He asked as he leaned against his staff, panting from exertion.

"I've been having nightmares. I didn't want to keep waking Rose up."

Rose got thrown into the mat next to them by her partner. "I have been sleeping better," Rey reached down and helped her up from the dusty old padding that they'd set up for impromptu skill building sessions. "I'm sad you're not there though." Rose was always the most earnest version of herself and Rey loved that about the engineer. The three of them moved back from the padding as the next group stepped up to practice.

"Have we been contacted by anyone yet?" Rey asked as they made their way back between buildings to the main bunker across a field of old and crusted snow.

"Leia's signal was received by all of our allies. But we're on our own. They've made it very clear that they don't want to help us." Finn ground out. He was still reeling with anger from their initial abandonment on Crait over several months ago.

"They just lost their hope," Rose said as she kicked a clump of ice out of her path. They crossed the threshold into the main bunker through an airlock and stomped the cold from their feet as they hung up their jackets alongside twenty other identical ones.

A blue light above them began flashing and the speakers crackled out a garbled and ancient inbound storm warning. They ushered each other into the slightly warmer hallway of the bunker and parted ways. 

Rey followed the now familiar walls of the hallway that led to the hangar. The section of roof that hadn't been frozen shut when they arrived was in the process of closing in preparation for the oncoming storm. She gave the briefest of waves to the alien who was responsible for the closing and climbed the ramp to the Falcon. 

The hangar was colder than the rest of the buildings, Rey would be alone for as long as her walking rug of a friend decided to stay by Leia's side as her self-appointed guard.

Rey palmed a drawer open and pulled out the book she'd been working on. She didn't know all the words or how to read half of the letters, but it talked about lightsabers and she needed a new one.  
\---------------------------------------------------  
A month had gone by before Ben felt the world drop from around him and his ears ring. He was in the middle of watching the senators begging for their planet when the room fell away. He watched her stand up from where she had been sitting in front of him and close the gap with a few quick steps. He shook his head briefly and shut the bond down.   
He could feel her confusion follow him out of the bond.  
\---------------------------------------------------  
Rey was standing in the middle of the Falcon. She had just seen Ben as sure as day sitting in front of her and he'd shut the bond on her. He never shut the bond when it was active. He had always left that choice up to her. She dropped the hand that she didn't realize had been reaching out in front of her back to her side.

The blizzard lights still flashed in the hangar, illuminating the interior of the Falcon with an eerie blue light.

Rey whispered his name aloud to the emptiness of the Falcon. A button blinked to life on a panel to her right. She hesitantly turned to it, wondering if she'd get shut out again, but the panel blinked steadily, Ben nowhere in sight. She moved to the panel and pushed the button. The holo-table rattled to life and a woman's voice began saying something too quiet to hear. Rey lowered herself onto the couch by the table and watched as the figure of a woman became clearer.

"-don't take too long this time. Ben's going to be leaving soon. Luke sent word that the temple is finally ready..."

Rey rubbed at her eyes as the recording kept playing. The scene spun around and the camera was looking up at a lanky young man who was fussing with the ends of his sleeves. The hologram petered out as Ben looked up from his sleeves and scowled whatever was recording him. A new scene took its place as a little boy rattled off the events of his day to the camera and glanced off camera, looking for the encouragement of the woman who was just outside of the field of view. That blinked out too as static disrupted the recording. After flickering for a moment, the recording faded on Leia resting her forehead against the little one of her son. 

The holo-table shut off and Rey wiped at the tears that had begun streaming down her face.   
\-------------------------------------------------------  
Ben was bathed in light staring at an impassable void of darkness in front of him. He slammed his fists against the darkness like he had so many times before and shattered it. She reached out to him and he grabbed her hand, pulling her up into the light. 

"Why are you still having this dream?" He asked, leading her into the emptiness of the bond.

"I don't know," She replied. He squeezed her hand.

"You're supposed to resist the darkness."

"I don't know how." Ben stopped short in front of Rey and she stumbled to keep from walking into his back.

"You resisted me when I had you strapped to a table in the depths of space. You tried to resist Snoke when he tortured you for information. You know how to resist, what it feels like... I'm starting to think you don't want to."

"You say it like it's something easy." Rey let go of his hand and he turned to face her. "You gave into the darkness too."

"Did I?" Ben crossed his arms across his chest. The surrounding light pulsed through both of them warming them to the core.

"Luke sensed the darkness rising in you, Snoke made you his apprentice, called you the Son of Darkness. You're a Sith Lord who killed his own father for goodness sake." Rey lifted her arms up and out as if she couldn't make it any more obvious to her companion that he was the embodiment of the Dark side.

"Yet I'm the one on the side of the light pulling you from the void." Ben smirked. It was not a mirthful expression.

"What are you?" Rey asked, leaning back from him.

"Supreme Leader. Sith. Jedi. Ben. Kylo Ren. A prince. A god," he turned and walked away from her, suddenly more mature than he'd ever been "and starting today, your teacher."

Rey's heart pounded against her chest.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
"Did you make your lightsaber?" She asked. She was sitting in the Falcon with the Jedi text open across her lap.

"Which one?" Ben asked from where he was pacing across the other side of the bond. 

"You haven't always had the angry red one?"

"No. My first lightsaber was green. It was given to me by my first master." Ben's voice sounded detached, like he didn't want the memory to be his. 

"Your uncle. Luke." Rey stated what he was trying not to acknowledge.

Ben growled and turned his back to her.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
He had Coruscant under his heel. It felt good to know the power of domination. They had blockaded the planet halting all inbound and outbound ships. Trade had died within the first hours of The Democracy entering Coruscant space. The month that followed was spent strangling the planet into submission. Something greedy flickered in his eyes when he met with his officers. They brought him news from neighboring planets and the senate. He had made quite the splash diving into his bid for galactic domination. He advised that they seize the next closest planet for good measure and announced he was going to take the Flagship back into Hyper Space. He was met with objections.

"If we stay, we encourage resistance. When the people of Coruscant look up and see this ship hovering over them they hate us more with each passing hour. We can't feed their instincts to fight back."

The protests didn't quiet. He raised his hand out and pulled throats shut.

"I am your Supreme Leader!" He bellowed to the gathered officer's as they clawed at their throats. "My word is law and my law is final. This ship goes into Hyper Space today. If you're not on it, it will be because your corpse is floating in the vacuum just beyond these walls." 

He released his hold on the Force and spun on his heel and left the room.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Rey was in her dream again. She was surrounded by the darkness. It held her down as she thrashed against it. She kicked and pummeled it where she could, but it moved around her. She screamed in frustration and fear which made the darkness grow. A crack of light appeared and Ben's voice drifted through to her.

"Resist, Rey. RESIST." he stepped back from the darkness and the crack of light was sealed shut as the void around her smothered out the trace of its enemy. Rey choked on the fluidity of the void as it stole her breath and filled her lungs all at once. She stopped fighting and relaxed into the darkness like it was a friend. 

She reached out with the Force and felt Ben on the other side of the bond like an anchor in a storm. She felt more though, so much more. She felt the lingering feelings of loneliness and love coming from the Falcon. She felt the fear in the bunker base, the hesitancy of life rolling into and against itself. She felt the decay of the frozen earth beneath the concrete. She felt the Light pushing against the Darkness. She felt Luke and every master that had come before him. She felt the Force itself lifting her up from the Dark and saw the void crack and shatter before her. 

Ben was on the other side, watching her from a grayness that shimmered and blended endlessly from Light to Dark.

She took his outstretched hand without hesitation.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------


	5. Chapter 5

Ben admittedly had not thought beyond Coruscant. He had expected his plan to fail, not to watch the leaders of the planet offer themselves up to him on a silver platter. It felt wrong. Like someone had manipulated the situation to his advantage. He shook his head against the nagging thought working its way to the forefront of his mind. That the Supreme Leader wasn't the man in the chair he had sliced in half.

He paced his lavishly decorated room and felt the Force swirling around him. The threads and sensations of the Force were something he was intimately familiar with and yet, when he focused all of his attention on becoming one with it, something tugged at the base of his skull keeping him tied to an unseen entity. He had mistaken that for his bond to Rey once, but knew now that it was not the case.

Ben's eyes widened and his breathing quickened. His lips pulled back from his teeth as the realization of what had been going on over the last month and more snapped into place. He was being manipulated by something and if he had been deceived then...

He stopped himself. She wasn't capable of something like this. She had no grand desires beyond finding her place in the universe. She was safe. His thoughts turned to how he could break this other bond. If he fled, could he even find the source of the twisted feeling? 

_go to her go to her go to her_

Ben whirled around his room and the room continued to spin after he'd stopped. 

"Who are you?" He barked into the quiet.

_go to her go to her go to her_

"How are you attached to me?" He pulled his lightsaber from his belt and activated it. It thrummed to life and the whispering voice got louder.

_Bring me to Her. Go to her Go to her Go to her_

Ben twirled the hilt carefully. He had fooled Snoke when it was time to do so. He wasn't without options or odds. His ears began to ring and the nothingness of the Force bond began to swallow up his surroundings.

"OUT. GET OUT OF HERE." He bellowed into the bond. He couldn't see her, but he felt her. He could smell her perfume and hear the jangle of her jewelry.

It wasn't Rey. 

He whirled around and saw his mother standing behind him. Shock was as plain on her face as the fear was on his.

"Ben..." Leia's grip on her cane tightened. The spot at the base of his skull burned.

"NO. NO, NOT HER. NOT HER!" He screamed at the sensation that throbbed even hotter at the back of his skull. 

The darkness that he pulled Rey out of in her dreams cascaded past him and enveloped his mother without a sound. He ran forward and fell onto his desk as his world came rushing back.


	6. Chapter 6

Ben admittedly had not thought beyond Coruscant. He had expected his plan to fail, not to watch the leaders of the planet offer themselves up to him on a silver platter. It felt wrong. Like someone had manipulated the situation to his advantage. He shook his head against the nagging thought working its way to the forefront of his mind. That the Supreme Leader wasn't the man in the chair he had sliced in half.

He paced his lavishly decorated room and felt the Force swirling around him. The threads and sensations of the Force were something he was intimately familiar with and yet, when he focused all of his attention on becoming one with it, something tugged at the base of his skull keeping him tied to an unseen entity. He had mistaken that for his bond to Rey once, but knew now that it was not the case.

Ben's eyes widened and his breathing quickened. His lips pulled back from his teeth as the realization of what had been going on over the last month and more snapped into place. He was being manipulated by something and if he had been deceived then...

He stopped himself. She wasn't capable of something like this. She had no grand desires beyond finding her place in the universe. She was safe. His thoughts turned to how he could break this other bond. If he fled, could he even find the source of the twisted feeling? 

go to her go to her go to her*

Ben whirled around his room and the room continued to spin after he'd stopped. 

"Who are you?" He barked into the quiet.

go to her go to her go to her*

"How are you attached to me?" He pulled his lightsaber from his belt and activated it. It thrummed to life and the whispering voice got louder.

Bring me to Her. Go to her Go to her Go to her*

Ben twirled the hilt carefully. He had fooled Snoke when it was time to do so. He wasn't without options or odds. His ears began to ring and the nothingness of the Force bond began to swallow up his surroundings.

"OUT. GET OUT OF HERE." He bellowed into the bond. He couldn't see her, but he felt her. He could smell her perfume and hear the jangle of her jewelry.

It wasn't Rey. 

He whirled around and saw his mother standing behind him. Shock was as plain on her face as the fear was on his.

"Ben..." Leia's grip on her cane tightened. The spot at the base of his skull burned.

"NO. NO, NOT HER. NOT HER!" He screamed at the sensation that throbbed even hotter at the back of his skull. 

The darkness that he pulled Rey out of in her dreams cascaded past him and enveloped his mother without a sound. He ran forward and fell onto his desk as his world came rushing back.


	7. Chapter 7

The base was at a standstill. No one knew what to do. Leia had been talking with Poe and Rey about needing to relocate somewhere warmer when she fell silent, whispered her son's name and completely vanished.

Poe was assuming command as best he could without knowing who or what he was supposed to rally his rebels against. Finn was cursing the name of Kylo Ren to anyone who would listen. Rey was trying in vain to open the Force bond.

She could tell he was keeping it shut. Had been keeping it shut for two days.

She stretched out on her back in the small med bay bed on the Falcon and opened herself to the Force.

"Where are you?"

The ringing in her ears began. Hands slammed against either side of her head and she jumped. They were nose to nose. Ben pushed himself up and rolled to the side. Rey could feel the rage rolling off of him. If her feelings about Leia's disappearance were a thunderstorm, Ben was a hurricane.

"What happened?"

He glared at her and stood up. She followed him.

"Are you alone? Ben, answer me! What happened to Leia?" Rey grabbed his left wrist and held it firmly as he pulled his arm up and away, lifting her off the ground. He grabbed her around the waist with the other arm and twisted his left arm free of her grip. He didn't let go once she did. He wrapped both arms around her and pulled her against him. Rey could hear his heart hammering against his chest. She could feel it echoed by her own.

She pushed away from him. He allowed her to take enough room to look at him, but he held her tightly. 

"What. Happened."

The shimmering gray that had become their space in the bond, their balance between the Light and Dark, faded. It was replaced by the interior of what Rey had seen only once before. 

Kylo Ren's command shuttle, and it was going through Hyper Space.


	8. Chapter 8

Rey shoved against Ben and broke free from him. She closed her eyes and waited for her ears to start ringing. A warm hand alighted on her shoulder and she sighed with cautious relief.

"I'm back. I have to be," she opened an eye. Arms drew her back against the massive frame that she'd just gained her freedom from.

"I tried to shut you out," his voice made his chest rumble.

"No..." 

"So that you'd stay out of the way."

"No, no, no..."

"Because I knew that something like this was going to happen."

"NO!" Rey broke out of Ben's grasp again and spun to face him. "Take me back. Take me back right now!" Her voice raised in pitch as she fought against the hysterics building inside her.

"I CAN'T" He roared back at her.

"WHY NOT?" She screamed back, tears springing to life in her eyes.

"Because it wants YOU. IT CAME FOR YOU...and she-she GOT IN THE WAY."

"So now I'm your prisoner." Hot, angry tears rolled down Rey's cheeks as shook her head in disbelief. "Once a monster, always a monster."

Ben winced. She knew her words would do more harm to him than any physical blow. She knew where to aim to shatter him. Fine. If she wanted Kylo Ren instead of Ben, then that's who he'd be. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into the one holding cell on his shuttle. Her anger burned him, literally. He was sweating in his robes and beads of it ran down the back of his neck. His hand was in agony where he held onto her. He handled her roughly into the cell and she glared at him in seething silence as he locked her up.

"You-" He trailed off trying to think of something he could say to give her the idea that he wasn't her enemy this time. He fell short of words and stormed out of the corridor he'd dragged her down and back to the bridge where he could monitor his course.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------  
Ben buried his face in his hands. She had jumped to a conclusion and he'd let her do it. He'd exacerbated the situation by locking her up. His ears started ringing and the bridge faded into nothingness.

He was alone in the Light, watching the darkness swirl and undulate before him. It moved the same as always, it was unchanged. He crashed into it without hesitation, throwing all of his focus into the Force attack. The Darkness splintered and shattered and fell away, but Leia wasn't there. The base of his skull burned and the Dark reformed itself around him. 

_son of darkness son of darkness son of darkness_

_I have something you want something you want something you want_

"Who are you?" He asked, relaxing into the void that surrounded him.

_Nothing. Nothing. Nothing_

"Is that an echo, or just how you talk?" 

The darkness squeezed him until the snap of several ribs echoed around him and he cried out in pain. His ears rang and the bridge of the shuttle swam back into view. He leaned back against the commander's chair and hissed at the pain. The ship jumped out of Hyper space and he grabbed the controls. Toggles flipped on around him as he used the Force as a co-pilot and brought up navigation charts while steering through the debris of dust and rocks that circled the small un-named planet. 

He needed fuel. In the jump to Hyper Space he had the clearest view of the Force, therefore he needed to jump often and, just as importantly, jump to planets that had fuel and no First Order presence. He circled the hovering fuel station and docked to it once a space cleared. He rose from the chair to open the fuel tank and doubled over with a growl.  
\---------------------------------------------------------  
The shout from the bridge had pulled Rey's focus away from picking the lock of the cell door. It beeped angrily at her and her hand received a shock from the mechanism. She snapped her hand back from the door and sucked on her stinging fingers. Her booted foot slammed into the door, which caused it to clatter loudly in the empty area of the shuttle. The metal of the door hummed slightly as it settled back into its ruts. Rey howled in frustration, cursing Kylo Ren with every fiber of her being.

Her ears rang and she saw him standing before her. His back was turned, focused wholly on another task. Without hesitation, Rey ran forward and aimed a kick at the back of his knees. He went down, but a gloved hand whirled around and grabbed a fistful of her hair, pulling them both out of the bond and back into the shuttle. She threw a flurry of wild punches at his face and chest. A lucky flurry of jabs found the fractured ribs and he dropped her in favor of protecting his injuries. He glared up at her through loose black curls, panting in pain. She had the briefest glimmers of concern before she sprang to her feet and scrambled on the polished floors towards the bridge. The soles of her boots squeaked on the floor as she was dragged backwards by Ben's use of the Force. 

"Let me go!" She raged at him, gnashing her teeth and fighting the Force. "You cowardly piece of slime, LET ME GO!"

"I'm trying to SAVE HER." Ben grunted from where he was still crouched on the ground. His breathing rattled with the effort it took him to keep Rey immobilized. "I'm trying to-trying-"

Rey was released as Ben collapsed into unconsciousness. She took two more instinctual steps towards the bridge of the shuttle and her eminent escape before a tug in her chest brought her to a halt.  
\----------------------------------------------------------  
Ben woke up shirtless, wrapped in bandages and vaguely aware that his ship was whirring through Hyper space.

"I like you better when you're sleeping." Rey stepped into his view, arms crossed across her chest and his lightsaber attached to her belt. Ben let his eyes close and relaxed deeper into the mattress of whatever bed he was in.

"Why are you still here?" He felt her reach for the lightsaber and heard her fingers brush against the metal hilt.

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do."

Rey paused. She knew the answer, she had been shown something impossible. Whether it had been Snoke's doing or the machinations of something bigger; she still wasn't certain, but she knew it was the truth as she plucked at the leather cuff she wore on her wrist and opened her mouth several times to formulate the right words before finally settling on the sentence she wanted to say.

"Because I saw your future, and I want to still believe in that version of you."

"That's very noble of you," Ben said, his pouty lips curling into a smirk not wholly unlike his father's.

Rey glared at Ben for a moment. He looked impossibly sure of himself, lying half-asleep and bandaged in a bed in a ship that was hurtling through the cosmos after his stolen mother. She half wanted to slap the smugness off his face. The other half of her thoughts she wanted to ignore.


	9. Chapter 9

"Poe, I need you to trust me," Rey said into the headset that was draped around her ear. "I'm going after the General and I know how to find her."

"Rey, you disappeared just like she did. What am I supposed to"*ksssssst* "and you didn't ev-"*kssssssssssssssssst* Rey pulled the piece away from her ear as it garbled into pure static. She was piloting the shuttle towards a clearing in a secluded spot of what appeared to be a mostly uninhabited jungle planet. 

"Sorry Poe, everyone." The shuttle landed with a whirr and a gentle thud as it met solid earth beneath the landing gear.

"Where are we?" Ben's voice was sudden and raspy behind her. Rey whipped around and fixed him with a glare.

"I don't know. I can't read the map. Plus we've jumped so far and so many times I doubt we're even in our galaxy."

"Don't be dramatic," Ben said, reaching across her carefully to bring the shuttle's navigation systems back up. His brow furrowed. "We're nowhere."

"Well we have to be somewhere. We're on a planet. There's trees and everything." Rey gestured at the window with a sweeping motion, needlessly emphasizing her point about the trees.

"You're very helpful," Ben was still leaning across her as he browsed the map he'd brought up and the coordinates that the shuttle was giving him for its location. He'd managed to change into something plainer than his typical padded tunic, the fabric was soft and flowing and his sleeve slowly dragged across Rey's thighs as he pulled away. "This planet doesn't have a name."

"Good. That means it's the perfect spot to hide from the First Order while we come up with a plan to rescue Leia." Rey said to herself more than to the other person in the shuttle.

"You seem to be under the impression that we're going to be working together from now on," Ben's voice rumbled in her ear. She felt him grab the back of her chair and the perfume of him filled her nose as he leaned down, his face next to hers. He smelled surprisingly like the Falcon. Metallic and earthy and sharp all at once. Rey turned to face him and they were nose to nose.

"She's the leader of the resistance. What are you going to do once you find her? Lock her up in a cell on your ship until she dies?" Rey sneered and pulled back from Ben's intense gaze as best she could while still seated.

"She is my mother. You would do well to remember that," Ben straightened himself upright with gentle and careful movements.

"Join the resistance Ben. We need you, we could do so much for the Galaxy. With you on our side we could stop the First Order and restore balance," Rey stood from the chair and opened her palms towards him.

"I can do more damage if I'm still --" Ben caught himself and turned away. He wasn't going to hand her all of his cards just because her hazel eyes were wide, innocent and trusting. Rey caught his wrist as he started to walk away.

"Help me rescue Leia, or let me help you. Like it or not, we're in this together now. We're stronger side by side than we would ever be working alone."

Ben regarded Rey with a wary eye and let her pull him around.


	10. Chapter 10

There was a hesitant and lukewarm peace between the Supreme Leader and the young Jedi, but wary glances shot between them as they each worked separately to make the preparations they thought were necessary to mount a rescue of General Organa from whatever new darkness they were facing. They had quietly and subconsciously agreed that they needed a few beats of rest to compose themselves and get out of the confines of the command shuttle that they had spent several sleep cycles crammed together in. Ben had elected to stay nearer to their landed ship while Rey frequently disappeared just beyond the tree line. She would return with various green things and branches and sit with them under the shade of one of the ship's wings and fiddle with them until she had made something useful or had broken her materials at which point she'd disappear back into the tree line. Ben contented himself with dividing his time between meditating and scrutinizing and tweaking the ship. As it stood, they had minimal fuel reserves, enough for one or two jumps back towards the next inhabited area, which if the maps were correct, sat just beyond that.

Rey was under the angled wing of the shuttle seeking shelter from the overbearing and sticky heat of the height of day. Jakku and Ach-to had prepared her surprisingly well for this style of roughing it and she had a pile of edible things next to her that she nibbled at while weighing different rocks in her hands. 

Ben dropped a toolbox on the ground next to her and she startled out of her reverie. Rey looked up at him and swallowed the rude comment that had sprung up. Ben was looking up at the underside of the wing, working at a set of bolts with a special tool for loosening them. There wasn't the faintest hint of malice or anger in his warm brown eyes. His features were soft and relaxed, albeit focused, and already glistening with sweat. 

"Can you help me with this?" Even his tone was different from what she had grown to expect from him.

Without thinking she dusted her hands off on her shirt and stood next to him. A wrench flew out of the toolbox and into her hand.

"There's a damper on the thrusters." He said, prying a panel off the underside of the wing with a snarl, his ribs reminding him that they were still healing. 

"I thought something felt a little restrained when I was flying it before," Rey replied. "How'd you figure it out?"

"The few times Solo was around long enough to be a father he only wanted to talk about how to make something go faster," Ben held the panel out of the way while Rey force-dragged a rock over for her to stand on. She wordlessly stepped up and loosened the nut he pointed to with his free hand. Rey wanted to say something about the night on the Falcon where the ship seemed to be half alive and full of memories of a different time but thought better of it. She steered the conversation away from Ben's family and onto hers.

"I was sold to Unkar Plutt to be bride." She stuck her hand into a small opening and shoved a plug tighter into place and felt around for any frayed wires.

"We can kill him. When this is all over....If you want." Ben's voice was so sincere that Rey laughed. 

"I'll consider it a favor I can call in at a later date" Rey's reply was diplomatic. She didn't think Plutt deserved to die unnecessarily. Yes he was disgusting and had tried so very hard to groom her into being his, but her independent streak was 10 miles wide and she bowed to no one who would force her. Besides, Plutt was the buyer, not the seller.

"This is nice. Sharing stories of our depressing pasts and traumas. We should do it more often." Ben grinned and looked at his boots when Rey sniggered.

\----------------------------------------  
They had gone to sleep twice on the unnamed jungle planet. The days were unbearably hot and muggy, the nights somehow cold and even more muggy. They each had commented more than once how they felt like they were breathing water. Rey's scavenging into the surrounding area had brought up enough edible items to bolster their rations and she had even found scraps of a crashed freighter that was at least 40 years old. She had lugged back more than double her weight to the amazement of her companion and in turn he had suddenly brought up her lack of a lightsaber.

Ben was enjoying the cooler evening air as he slowly used the force and his hands to roll scrap metal into a tube. Rey watched him from the opposite side of the fire pit she was building up. Among other things she had also found water and fish and had several aquatic specimens speared on twigs sitting on the earth next to her. 

"This won't be good for anything unless we can get hold of a kyber crystal," Ben said holding the long metal tube in one hand. He pulled his own saber off his belt with the other hand and ignited it. He used the white hot blade to melt the spurs off the ends of the scrap metal and cut it slightly shorter. The metal cooled quickly in the cooler air of dusk.

"I don't think you're supposed to use that that way," Rey said with a hint of cheekiness in her voice. Ben stared at her, then stood up and stuck the tip of the blade into the pile of wood in front of Rey.

"It's a tool." The embers in the wood caught and a fire slowly flickered to life. "You'll need to find some more components to go inside, but this should be a good base for later. See how it feels." His saber turned off with an angry hiss and he handed her the base he'd just made. 

The length and size of what she'd been handed felt familiar to Rey. The metal was weighted like a staff, but a third of what the length should have been. She turned to Ben, "This isn't the right size to be a sword."

"You are not skilled with a sword. That will be a staff. Blades on either end and since the blade is weightless all the weight is in the middle. It should be more familiar to you." Rey ground her teeth fighting to keep her jaw from dropping. He had taken the time to work the material into something she was proficient in, instead of doing what he was familiar with. Ben Solo continued to surprise her.

\---------------------------------------------------------------


End file.
